Is Trademe better than ebay?

[jambo]

We use ebay quite a lot in the UK. Looks like Trademe is a lot bigger in kiwiland. Do you reckon it's a better place to buy and sell than ebay? Pros? Cons? thanks.

[JandM]

It has the advantage of being THE one for NZ, so people tend to use it, so you'll be likely to find things you want relatively locally to you. Many eBay and Amazon sellers won't send to NZ.

[victoria24]

trademe is also nz only. i also like the fact that theres no paypal to contend with. its all worked out with the seller.

[Sun777]

Shipping and issue resolution over ebay might be tough from NZ, OH still buys things over ebay and 3 out of 5 times she has to run around sending email to ebay support staff.

Though Trademe is not the perfect place but still most of the times it served the purpose for me.

[jambo]

No Paypal! That's a surprise. Does that mean cheques and bank transfers? Is there buyer protection the way ebay/paypal does it?

Interesting what you say about problems buying from ebay and needing the help of ebay support people Sun777. If sellers are setup to post to other countries I’d have thought it should go smoothly. What sort of things go wrong?

[Sun777]

Interesting what you say about problems buying from ebay and needing the help of ebay support people Sun777. If sellers are setup to post to other countries I’d have thought it should go smoothly. What sort of things go wrong?

Few of them were damaged product (this was with a pair of shoes), size of clothes and once seller posted totally wrong item.

[Mamee & Co]

Trade me reminds me of eBay when it was originally set up, people selling their own stuff second hand, rather than the businesses which now use it as a market place.

[jambo]

Few of them were damaged product (this was with a pair of shoes), size of clothes and once seller posted totally wrong item.

It would be a real hassle to return stuff from nz to the uk. Probably enough to put me off buying unless I could be certain off the seller.

Trade me reminds me of eBay when it was originally set up, people selling their own stuff second hand, rather than the businesses which now use it as a market place.

Noticed that looking for DVDs on ebay. Lots of businesses selling DVDs at higher prices than Amazon. Not many private sellers.

[Sun777]

It would be a real hassle to return stuff from nz to the uk. Probably enough to put me off buying unless I could be certain off the seller.

Yes and another worst situation was that I bought RAM (memory) to upgrade my laptop, the first set of RAM didn't work at all so I had to return it back to seller and get another set of it, which eventually worked but I had spent just about similar amount to get same stuff in NZ (sending things via recorded delivery and waste of time were compromise)

[edw123]

I was a big ebayer, and use trade me - it's your only choice.

It's not fit to lace the boots of ebay though.

No paypal (hence no protection, although I've only sold). Far fewer goods, with NZ being a smaller country. Far smaller community so less bids and lower prices. You have to credit money up front in minimum $10 blocks, even if you only owe 25c. They are very anal about things (e.g. they once suspected a phone I sold had a UK plug, despite me not saying it did), and removed it. Could go on.

So use it, but just don't expect the ebay experience.